Thredbo Landslide of 97! Does everyone remember??

On the 30 July 1997 at 11:40pm a section of the road above Thredbo collapsed, causing the destruction of two buildings and the loss of 18 lives. Most of you will remember those harrowing images of the rescuers searching day and night for survivers....and miraculously pulling out 'Stuart Diver' alive after almost 3 days under the rubble.

Here is the official 'Memorial Walk' Dom took (while Leonie worked) of the whole story.....

The start of the "Memorial Walk'. Starts at the valley terminal, and passes along the Thredbo River to where the bobsledding track is.

Directly opposite a point near the bobsled track shows the landslide site. You can see the exact place where the landslide hit in the two pics below. See there in between the buildings? There is a top level (above the road) and then the lower level (which shows the memorial platform). Here stood Bimbadeen  Ski Lodge, above was the Carinya Ski Lodge. Both gone in seconds....you can now see the grassy regeneration in place.

This is the spot from where Dom took the above two photos, and is the exact spot where the media covered the reporting from.

After following the above track down to Friday Drive, Dom followed Bobuck Lane up the hill to the disaster site.

Just passed the disaster site, looking upwards from Bobuck Lane towards the Apline Way (the top road that collapsed that night), you can still see the floor foundation of Carinya Ski Lodge amongst the shrubs.

This pic shows the reinforced retaining wall that was completed on the Apline Way after the landslide.

Upward view showing local shrubs and regeneration that was planted after the landslide...as part of the recovery.

A view from Bobuck Lane looking down to the 'Memorial Site' where Bimbadeen Ski Lodge once stood. The tragedy occurred late at night when most residents where in bed. Over 2000 cubic metres of liquified soil took barely a few seconds to move 250 metres. The Carinya Ski Lodge was pushed downhill with such force that it crossed Bobuck Lane and ploughed into Bimbadeen Ski Lodge, causing the buildings total collapse. 

The wall of Bobuck Lane that was remade after the landslide. You can see in the pic where the newer wall starts just near the first post, as opposed to the older grey-er wall towards the right side.

The "Memorial Site' was created with 18 posts...to commemorate the 18 lost lives from the disaster. You can see some of these post below.

Below is the view looking down from the 'Memorial Site' to where the Bimbadeen Ski Lodge ended up. Now it is all overgrown with grass and shrubbery. It's a miracle that none of the below buildings were affected.

View of the landslide looking up towards Bobuck Lane. Dom walked around on the grass there. It still doesn't feel that 100% solid.

Below is an example of the drainage pipes that was put in place down through the Thredbo Village to allow water run off from the mountains. This was one of the main reasons that the landslide occurred. Water run-off helped make the ground unstable and contributed greatly to the damage. This drain runs out onto Bobuck Lane in the exact place where the landslide happened (in between the two ski lodges. Makes you wonder if this can happen again? Even with the pipes now in place, there is still constant water running off??

This the 'Gabion Walls' up on the Alpine Way which was put in place as part of the work to stabilise the area after the disaster. It's interesting how these are created. Each wire basket is linked together and hand filled with rocks until they are full. Apparently this allows water to run-off through the rocks but also, when full, each wire basket securely sits in place. They are all wired to the concrete up on the Alpine Way or to the wall matter behind them.

Remember these were hand filled and go as far as the eye can see below the Alpine Way and also up on the opposite side of the road too. 

This is view from the 'Memorial Site' towards to majestic skiing mountains of Thredbo Village, and also Mt Kosciusko. You can see the snow-capped tops after some minus temperatures lately. The 'Memorial Site' is a place for quiet reflection, and although the immediate surroundings remind you of the horror and devastation...the mountain views fill you with hope and a little bit of serenity.

And so we come to the end...hopefully they have learnt from this terrible event, and it shall never happen again here.

Back into NSW for an unexpected turn...

Bye, Bye beautiful coast....will see you in the spring time....

OMG look how F***ing cold it is!!! Its winter, yup and mornings are a real treat getting out of the car and making our way to HOT HOT HOT showers!!! See below pic of our temperature gauge!

We are now in Jindabyne, known affectionately as part of the Snowies or The Snowie Mountains. An amazing place....a place where we have decided to park our butts for a while and put in as many job applications as possible to see if we can work in Thredbo or Perisher for the snow season? It may or may not work, because all the job placements happen in Feb. But we can only try! This part of the trip, and if it works out it will fuel our next leg of the journey into Melbourne and Tasmania for spring and summer! 

This part of our journey wasn't planned, but as we have always said, 'everything is subject to change'. We are loving the challenge!

We pulled into 'The BIG4 Discovery Holiday Park'.

Below is Leonie making a new friend, and she has no food in her hand! The little lady just waddled up to say 'hello' and then went on her happy way...lol

Winter sun is a real treat here, oh just lapping it up!!!

Da Dahhhh we made it! Wooooo Hooooo!!!!

The drive into Perisher on the Snowy Mountain Highway

Below Leonie prepares herself to hand in her CV for employment with Perisher....Hmmmmm

(You can see small snow patches over the front valley in the background. Snow making time) 

Look at that! Below they are making snow!!!!

These little patches of snow provide the base for the real snow to settle and 'stick' to the manmade stuff. (We've been told it costs about 10K just to fire these babies up and then around 100K to run them all night....so it's an expensive process all this snow stuff :)

Dom got picked up by the cops in a hellicopter!!! hehehehehe

(You'll have to watch the below video to see what happens??)

Clearly Leonie is in one of her brat moods...lol...Always playing around with life! :)

Does Dom really get taken away by the cops in a helicopter? Watch and see for your self...

Below we got our Kosciusko National Parks pass at a discounted price...because we both scored 2 jobs each for the winter (in Thredbo)!!! Yup, all those job applications that we put in, and door knocking paid off!

(See...if you persist, hustle, smile and believe in yourself things really do happen! Stay tuned to find out where we are working) 

Below Dom couldn't belive the amount of water that was pouring out of the back of this ute...

Then we looked inside to find it full with snow!!! Where has this ute been???

The river that runs from the top of Thredbo down into Jindabyne.

Stay tuned to see where we are now working! And if you come up for the snow season let us know so we can take some time off to spend with you all :) 

Lots and lots of warm hugs to you all!!!

D&L xxx

Mallacoota....Coastal Dreaming!

Leaving the country for the coast line is always something really special. We love our drives listening to music, snacking on food, telling stories and just watching our journey unfold. 

So we went on the road to the beautiful Mallacoota!!!

Mallacoota wasn't on our 'visit list', but we found a job at an Abalone Factory (well the possibility of a job anyway) packing and cleaning. They were located in Mallacoota. Where is Mallacoota? It's in Victoria, just over the border of NSW (in fact only 50 mins from the lovely Eden of NSW).

We weren't sure what to expect there...but what we found was fabulous!!!

Below shows us on the road to Mallacoota from the salad farm. It's back up towards NSW, about 3 hours from Maffra. Leonie drove us there (Dom was sick as a dog that day and slept most of the way).

After 3 hours, and a bit of rain and cloud, this is the scene that greeted us when we got to the 'Foreshore holiday Park'. Over the wetlands, little estuaries, and river systems...we could literally see the beginning of the rainbow :)

See how clear the water is. This is the area where the ocean runs through to the estuary when the tide is high. Makes for a great fishing spot at high tide.

Wildlife meeting at lunchtime. They have their own little island all morning.

Leonie capturing some magical pics in this wonderful light. She's very happy, very content, and very much at home in this environment. You'll see some of her pics in the future when she puts a trip photo album together.

Coral life...

A view of the foreshore, looking back towards our camp area.

A local fishing spot. Dom trying his hand with a couple of other locals.

A cold night in! Leonie doing some blog work in the camp kitchen by the open fire. The camp kitchen and facilities are some of the best we have seen. Microwave, BBQ, various burners and saucepans, huge sink, fridge, 2 large wooden tables, 2 open fireplaces with supplied wood.....

Believe it or not, this camp site was $20 per night for a powered site!!! Bargain bonanza there :)

A cold night calls for a hearty feed. Here we have pork cutlet with mash and red wine gravy, with a side of green beans...yummmoooooo! 

This was our ritual most evenings in the camp kitchen, and one night we were joined by a few other couples. A couple of wines later and all the men's guitars came out for a bit of a jam and sing along. 3 guitars (Dom's included), 3 men of different ages and backgrounds, everything from the 60's - 90's covered and sung (badly)....whilst the ladies looked on with a glass of red and a laugh. This is camping! Having some fun, expressing yourself, meeting great people. It doesn't get better than that.

A couple of days in and we finally got some fishing in. Here is Leonie having her hand at a fish.

He finally did it! After all the talk over the last few months about fishing and all.....Dom has finally caught something! This is a beautiful little flounder.

Later that day at sunset, Dom's strategy to cast a line far up in the estuary current and letting it drift down stream in the deep paid off, and he caught us a nice sized flathead too. Happy days.

Dinner that night. BBQ flounder and flathead fillets with lemon and a side of Moroccan couscous. Nothing more satisfying that eating your own catch from your own hard work.

We spent just on a week in Mallacoota and we loved it! It will stay with us.

Unfortunately the work didn't come through as it was really weather dependant. BUT...we were obviously meant to come, and maybe it was for the little seagull that we rescued from fishing tackle? or maybe it was for a moment to unwind and relax? Or maybe everything is as it should be? It doesn't matter what the reason, all we know is our hearts are open and we had a lovely time there, rejuvenating ourselves from the salad work, meeting new friends, and basking in the Autumn sun.

Side note: We met some lovely people who came from Jindabyne and mentioned how much work there was up there right now (with the snow season upon us and all). We hadn't considered ever going there. BUT...we always said 'everything is subject to change' and went with our gut instincts.

So now we're off once more, rejuvenated, reinvigorated, off to the land of opportunity and discovery. Going (unexpectedly) we were never thought we would.

In our hearts we know we will be back one day...and we look forward to it with a twinkle in our eye.

Mallacoota....Remember It !